Egg donation | Imamother

amother

Vermilion

Wed, Aug 09 2017, 12:39 pm

I saw an ad for egg donation. They are paying $8000 if you follow through with it.
Is it even allowed halachically? What is involved?
Can one function in daily life when doing the treatments?
I mean $8000 is a lot of money.

tichellady

Wed, Aug 09 2017, 12:46 pm

People can make a lot more than $8k for their eggs. It's a halakhic question ( different opinions as usual about who is the mother ), moral question ( multiple perspectives on this) , and health question. There is not a lot of research done on long term health affects on the treatments done for egg donation, so there may be some risks, It's something to explore. There is an opportunity for major chesed to be done by providing an egg to a family in need but you need to make sure you are aware of all the various ramifications

amother

Smokey

Wed, Aug 09 2017, 12:51 pm

Yes you can function with daily life.

Other than psychological screening - you are pumped up with drugs/hormones that stimulate your ovaries to produce more eggs than normal. You are monitored via ultrasound. You 'trigger' your follicles to release the eggs, and then they are retrieved from your body.

Is the same as someone going through IVF. Monitoring happens early in the morning at most clinics.

I'm not commenting on Halacha.

amother

Smokey

Wed, Aug 09 2017, 12:52 pm

amother wrote:

I see that this was discussed previously. I guess I will read the old threads. So interesting to me, but based on what the old threads are saying, you can't do it if you are married.

comment removed.

tichellady

Wed, Aug 09 2017, 12:53 pm

amother wrote:

I see that this was discussed previously. I guess I will read the old threads. So interesting to me, but based on what the old threads are saying, you can't do it if you are married.

There is no one halakhic opinion on this. Some will not allow a Jewish egg donor, others will only allow a Jewish egg donor, marriage status is relevant for some and not for others.

amother

Smokey

Wed, Aug 09 2017, 12:57 pm

tichellady wrote:

There is no one halakhic opinion on this. Some will not allow a Jewish egg donor, others will only allow a Jewish egg donor, marriage status is relevant for some and not for others.

There are different questions too. If I need an egg donor - should I find a Jewish one?. Is different than - I'm Jewish and I'd like to donate my eggs, may I and to whom?

Wed, Aug 09 2017, 4:10 pm

$8000 is a little low, I think, but I never looked into it too closely.

There will be a lot of injections over the course of several weeks. Monitoring will include blood tests and internal ultrasounds, not every single day, but frequently.

It's hard to know what to expect. Over multiple IVF cycles, my experiences ranged from minimal discomfort/no time off from work to severe but fleeting pelvic pain to full-blown ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) requiring several weeks of bedrest followed by light duty at work. This was about 20 years ago so there may have been some changes in the treatments and their side effects.

Get as much information as you can about the health risks, both short and long term. Most people go through the process with no problem, but think about what it might mean to you and your family if you became incapacitated. Make sure the contract or your existing disability insurance covers the potential costs.

Also think about how you might feel knowing you have biological offspring somewhere. Gratified about helping a desperate family? Or jealously yearning for "your" child(ren)? Or no sentiment at all about giving away a few extra cells?

I, too, will refrain from commenting on halacha.

amother

Jade

Wed, Aug 09 2017, 5:37 pm

8000 is what most clinics pay. We looked into using an egg donor before getting pregnant by accident during an off cycle and the donor fee was anywhere between 7-8k depending on if it was a proven donor or not. (Proven means they have cycled before and cycle resulted in a pregnancy)

TwinsMommy

Wed, Aug 09 2017, 6:11 pm

I didn't think egg donation -- -giving or receiving-- -was EVER an option for halachic Judaism? Out of curiosity, who are the Rabbis allowing it and what is their reasoning?

I have a friend who donated eggs---- she's Jewish but not frum --- yes she made money--- she's glad she did it--- she gets letters from the kids who came of it every year which is interesting.

We had male infertility and a couple of doctors told us we'd never get pregnant based on my husband's numbers. One doctor was willing to take an IVF chance on us and Baruch HaShem we have our twins. Today's technology is amazing.

Wed, Aug 09 2017, 6:22 pm

TwinsMommy wrote:

I didn't think egg donation -- -giving or receiving-- -was EVER an option for halachic Judaism? Out of curiosity, who are the Rabbis allowing it and what is their reasoning?

I know of at least one person who was advised to find a Jewish egg donor. I don't know the rabbi or the reasoning.

nicole81

Wed, Aug 09 2017, 6:26 pm

TwinsMommy wrote:

I know of two couples that were told to find a Jewish egg donor. The potential donors were required to submit verification of Jewish status from an orthodox bais din. Like cm, I'm not familiar with the details.

amother

Orchid

Thu, Aug 10 2017, 9:06 am

TwinsMommy wrote:

I didn't think egg donation -- -giving or receiving-- -was EVER an option for halachic Judaism? Out of curiosity, who are the Rabbis allowing it and what is their reasoning?

we've been told to only use non-jewish donors(which we did)

tichellady

Thu, Aug 10 2017, 9:11 am

cm wrote:

I know of at least one person who was advised to find a Jewish egg donor. I don't know the rabbi or the reasoning.

Rav Obadiah yosef, rav shlomo amar and rav shlomo goren. The idea is that the halakhic mother is the mother at conception. This makes a lot of sense to me.

SixOfWands

Thu, Aug 10 2017, 9:16 am

amother wrote:

we've been told to only use non-jewish donors(which we did)

Did the baby have to be converted to Judaism?

AIUI, early in the days of egg donation, it was assumed that any baby born from the womb of a Jewish woman was Jewish, regardless of the source of the egg. In that case, it was considered better to use the egg of a non-Jewish woman, which would (presumably, hopefully) reduce or eliminate the risk of genetic half-siblings marrying.

At some point, some rabbis began to question whether a baby conceived using an egg from a non-Jewish woman would be Jewish, even if delivered by a Jewish woman. At that point, those rabbis began recommending that eggs be taken only from Jewish women, so the babies would irrefutably be Jewish.

No source. I don't recall where I read this.

amother

Orchid

Thu, Aug 10 2017, 9:21 am

SixOfWands wrote:

yes at first was told baby would have to be converted.

amother

Blonde

Thu, Aug 10 2017, 10:18 am

amother wrote:

I would think about quitting my day job to do egg donation a few times a year. It sounds easier than working full time.

Think again then , as someone who is going through infertility , a day job is much easier ( emotional stuff aside , then this )

amother

Smokey

Thu, Aug 10 2017, 10:50 am

amother wrote:

I would think about quitting my day job to do egg donation a few times a year. It sounds easier than working full time.

Perhaps in my earlier explanation of what being an egg donor involves I omitted an important step - you don't 'donate eggs' until such time as someone selects you as a donor.

tichellady

Thu, Aug 10 2017, 11:02 am

amother wrote:

Think again then , as someone who is going through infertility , a day job is much easier ( emotional stuff aside , then this )

I think that's really debatable, depends on the day job and the physical experience which varies. Plenty of women do choose to do this to support themselves through college etc and do believe that it's worth it and would recommend it so there are clearly a variety of experiences